Personal Essay: Pursuing My Career Path

During the summer before I began my eight grade year of high school, I decided to read an old medical encyclopedia of my grandmother’s. Little did I know, I would read this book day after day, eventually leading to the discovery of my chosen career path. From that summer on I knew without a doubt that I wanted to become a doctor. I finished high school with great enthusiasm as I knew next fall I would begin my first collegiate steps to fulfill my dreams of becoming a physician at the only university I could imagine attending: the University of Alabama at Birmingham. When fall of 2015 finally came, I discovered the realities of being a full-time pre-medical and Honors College student. Now, as a student who is on the verge of completing freshman …show more content…
One of my many flaws is that I am very introverted. I attended an extremely small high school that is located in a tiny town; a town where everyone knows everyone, and I went to school with most of my classmates for my whole life. That being said, I really never had to learn to make friends with my classmates because I basically already knew everything about them and befriended them as a child. I realize now more than ever how crucial it is to make friends in college. Some may add some insight as to what to study for on the next exam or even provide moral support when you feel unsatisfied with an exam grade. Having a network of friends could have also alleviated my next flaw: being completely and utterly unprepared for Pre-Med life. I had no clue the work and dedication that it would take to gain acceptance into medical school. Sure, I knew that I would have to maintain a competitive GPA and score highly on the MCAT, but I did not understand that I would have to manage those two things and be involved in an impossible amount of extracurriculars. Having friends to help me discover the qualities of a successful Pre-Med student could have allowed my freshman year to be completely different. Another weakness that I unfortunately posses is being excessively worrisome. This weakness has only grown since the realization of how behind I am in my …show more content…
Because of this, I have devised several alternative career choices. One of those career choices includes earning a masters degree in biotechnology. If I do not gain acceptance into medical school after my first attempt, I then plan to take a gap year and utilize it by increasing my medical knowledge. I am extremely thankful that Biomedical Sciences 150 brought this option to my attention because I did not know this field existed before the first lecture. Another alternative to my ultimate career choice would be to obtain a bachelors degree in public health and become an epidemiologist. I have given some thought into this profession before, but what made me seriously consider it was the public health lecture in Biomedical Sciences 150. This lecture made me seriously consider changing my major to public health, but I have decided on declaring a public health minor instead. I think that option would allow me the best balance of the two subject that I expect to enjoy the most in my undergraduate studies. A third alternative career choice involves attending Physician Assistant school upon failure to gain acceptance into medical school. In the beginning, I gave no thought into this career as an option at all because I knew I wanted to be a physician, not an assistant. Thanks to the Biomedical Sciences 150 lecture by Ms. Caruthers, I now know that